Today 3 of us GoodGymers ran to the Gurdwara in Adamsdown, to help the fab organisation Food for Life.

If you're unaware of what Food For Life Wales does, it seeks to ensure that no one in South Wales goes hungry or is malnourished. They manage a volunteer-based distribution network that offers wholesome, plant-based meals for anyone experiencing food poverty or struggling to meet their nutritional needs. They've been active in the South Wales region for over 20 years!

Usually we help to prepare or pack meals. Now, they are moving to new premises where they'll be preparing their delicious meals. This time, they needed a hand to do a deep clean before they start up with meal prep in another week or so. Our task for the day was to wipe down with super-duper disinfectant over 50 chairs! So we donned rubber gloves, armed ourselves with spray bottles, and scrubbed away at the grime which was making the light gray chairs even grayer.

And what a difference it made! The photos don't do the job justice, but it was very rewarding by the end. With a final mop of the floor, we were through. Now when volunteers go to help FFL chop veg, scoop rice and seal meal tubs, they know what they're sitting on, will be clean and hygienic.

Thanks Imy, Flo and Ellen!

Last Saturday, 8 GoodGym runners met at the Shree Kutchi Leva Patel Samaj Community Centre in Cardiff, where they helped the wonderful Food for Life Wales organisation.

If you're not familiar with them, Food for Life Wales seeks to ensure that no one in South Wales goes hungry or is malnourished. They have been active in the South Wales region for over 20 years, and since lockdown started in March 2020, they have distributed over 75,000 meals to the vulnerable, the isolated and key workers in over 15 hospitals and 20 GPs surgeries across 3 health boards - WOWZA!!!

We had runners who had not helped out at FFL previously, so FFL volunteer Sophie gave us a brief introduction on what the organisation does, and what the task was for the morning. We started out with dessert (love THAT idea!) - cutting up chocolate tray cakes into small squares and then packing them up into bags, to add to meal delivery bags. I can not think of a better way to start a volunteer shift!

Once all the cake was packed up, we moved on to filling take-away style containers with the best smelling dahl, with lovely fluffy rice with veg. All I've got say is - lucky recipients of these meals! I smelled gorgeous and it was! - all volunteers were given left over containers to take home (mine being quickly devoured as soon as I got home).

When we were through, we helped clean up - that rice gets everywhere! Wiping down tables, hoovering the floor, and a final mop - even helping with the washing up! - were all undertaken by our GG vols on the day.

As usual it was a pRICEless opportunity to help out a hugely worthwhile organisation to support those in our communities who need it most. Thanks Food for Life Wales and thanks GoodGym volunteers!

On a lovely sunny Saturday morning, six goodgym runners headed to the Hindu Community Centre in Grangetown to help out Food for Life Wales. Food For Life Wales is a project by Ty Krishna Cymru that was started over 20 years ago to feeding those in need in South Wales. During the pandemic they started helping by mainly delivering daily meal deliveries to those who were self-isolating. They have now expanded to help people with physical and/or mental health conditions and also those who may be struggling financially.

Once everyone arrived, we put on our masks, aprons and even hair nets so we could start helping getting over 500 meals ready! A massive amount of curry and rice had been cooked by other volunteers, which was waiting to get packed up. We formed a curry packing conveyer belt with; Flo and Lowri on rice, Alison and Imy on curry and Martin and Charlotte were lid sealers.

Despite the tray of rice being the size of small surf board and having over four huge buckets of curry, we flew through packing it all up. We then helped with the cleaning, mopping and hoovering before we all headed off. A few goodgymers also helped washing up all the big pans. They were impressed that instead of using standard wooden spoons, an actual oar was used to stir the curries!

It was a busy couple of hours and lovely to catch up with other goodgymers. It was also a key mission for Alison as it was her first ever Good Deed!! She had previously joined in with Goodgym Cardiff's virtual events from her home in North East England. It was great she could take part when down in Cardiff for the weekend.

Credit to Martin for the pun!

This past Saturday, 11 of us GoodGymmers ran to the Hindu Community Centre in Grangetown to help out Food for Life Wales. Food For Life Wales is a project by Ty Krishna Cymru based in Cardiff Bay. It has been feeding those in need in South Wales with hot, nutritious, plant-based meals for over 20 years. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has adapted its service to be able to reach those who are self-isolating through daily meal deliveries.

It was very busy when we arrived, with vounteer drivers picking up boxes of ready-packaged meals to distribute to households as far away as Swansea. In the kitchen and prep area, other volunteers were already stuck in. Some were dishing up an Indian dessert into small tubs - a puree which smelled lovely! We GoodGym volunteers picked up where they left off, filling over 1,000 little tubs in 2 hours! We then sealed and wiped them down when they cooled, ready to be put into more meal packages.

But the fun didn't end there - we also unpacked store-bought tomatoes, peeled carrots and then chopped them into julienne sticks (those thin little sticks you get in salads or sometimes steamed). Others helped out by tidying up - sweeping, wiping down table tops and a final hoover of the prep room floor, before more volunteers arrived for the afternoon shift.

It was a very busy, hot and intense 2 hours - but we didn't carrot all!

I'll get my coat ...

This weekend I ran again to the Food for Life project in Grangetown, to help them prepare another day's worth of meals for the vulnerable.

Food For Life Wales seeks to ensure that no one in South Wales goes hungry or is malnourished. They have been active in the South Wales region for over 20 years! Right now this includes food for the homeless, care providers and individuals who are still isolating because of Covid-19.

This weekend, I spent over 3 hours sorting mangetout, chopping it up into bite-sized chunks and also peeling and chopping butternut squash to put into curry.

Did you know that mangetout literally means "eat all" in French because you eat both the pod and the pea? In American English it's known as the sweet or snow-pea. And amazingly, there was a man who ate an airplane, piece by piece - he was nicknamed Mr Mangetout. The world is a fascinating place!

This past Friday I ran down to the Hindu Temple in Grangetown, to help Food For Life prep meals they make for the vulnerable members of our community here in Cardiff. Even though it was raining, I'm no couch potato!

Once there I was assigned potato peeling duty - and between myself and a few other volunteers we ploughed our way through 40+ kgs of potatoes in just a couple of hours. It was mashing!

I've done a few good deeds with Food for Life recently, and what appeels to me is the opportunity to help out where I know it's needed, meet fellow volunteers, and also visit this interesting building which I've always wanted to do.

Q: What do you call a potato with right angles?

A: A square root !